Joseph Alexander Kershaw ’35

JOSEPH KERSHAW died July 9, 1989, of cancer at his home in Williamstown, Mass.

Joe was born April 13, 1913, in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. He prepared at Episcopal Academy and Valley Forge Military Academy. At Princeton he majored in economics, graduating with honors. He roomed with R.J. Hoey and R. Burr Smith at 42 South West during his junior year.

After graduation Joe earned a master's degree at N.Y.U. and a doctorate in economics at Columbia Univ. During WWII, as head of ration banking for the Office of Price Administration, he assisted in creating the national rationing system.

From 1948-62 he headed the economics department of the Rand Corporation where he directed the Soviet economics research program. In 1962 he became a professor of economics at Williams College where he held the Herbert H. Lehman Chair in economics and was named provost the following year. In the words of Williams' President Francis Oakley, Kershaw served Williams with "great vigor, ebullience, affection, devotion and distinction."

In 1975 after retirement, Joe became director of the N.Y.S. commission on the future of higher education. He also became part-time controller of the Clark Art Inst. and a trustee of Southern Vermont College.

He is survived by his wife Mary Anna, his son Stephen and two granddaughters to whom the Class sends deepest sympathies.